Victor resident William Bowen was troubled enough by a proposed development project in his town last year that he wanted to complain to the local ethics board, but he found out there was no board to go to.
That's soon expected to change.
The Victor Town Board is putting the final touches on a new Board of Ethics and is likely to vote on this proposal later this month.
"All of us know from experience that good government thrives in sunshine," said Bowen, a professor of environmental medicine and dentistry at the University of Rochester.
If Victor creates an active ethics board, it would be more than most towns in the state now have.
But the desire for such a panel in Victor raises questions about what an ethics board should regulate.
Bowen and some other residents want the Board of Ethics to address the issue of developers approaching town officials to discuss their projects outside public meetings.
Town Supervisor Leslie Bamann, who took office in January, said that she wants to look at the concerns raised, but added that she hasn't had a major issue with the current practice.
"There is no distinction between a resident thinking about moving here and a company thinking about moving here," Bamann said.
But Town Board member Peter Hessney, who also took office in January, said that while he can understand why developers would need to be in contact with the supervisor to get information about a potential project, they shouldn't be contacting other members of the Town Board on an individual basis.
"I don't think it's a good practice," said Hessney, who said that four or five developers have tried to contact him since he took office.
"I personally don't like developers calling me and putting me in uncomfortable situations. I'd much rather do it with all my board and have everyone hear what I am doing."
Victor has a law that provides for a Board of Ethics, but the board hasn't met in more than a decade and has no members. The new board would have three members appointed by the Town Board; town employees wouldn't be eligible to serve. State law does not require a town to have an ethics board. It only requires that localities have a code of ethics.
Many of the larger towns in the area have ethics boards but they see little activity.
"It hasn't been used for years," said Chili Supervisor Tracy Logel.
Douglas Whitney, chairman of the ethics board for Perinton, noted his panel would be activated by a written request from a town employee who has a question about what is permissible conduct.
"We haven't received a request for some time," Whitney said.
In Manchester, Ontario County, an ethics board does not exist, but town Supervisor Bill Eddinger said that a board would be created if one were needed to address a particular problem.
The Greece Board of Ethics focuses on reviewing the disclosure forms required of about 50 town employees and members of various boards.
"We look for red flags," said Ray DiRaddo, who is town attorney and a member of the town's Board of Ethics.
Since DiRaddo joined this ethics board about a year ago, the board has met twice — once to review disclosure forms and another time to review a request from a former town employee who wanted to work for a company that had a matter pending before the town.
State law provides certain conflict-of-interest prohibitions against local officials.
But the Temporary State Commission on Local Government Ethics issued a report in 1993 that concluded that the laws are "inadequate and indecipherable."
Town ethics laws often mirror the vague state law, said Mark Davies, who served as executive director of the state Temporary Commission and is now executive director of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.
